Eyes on Guam's tourism after attack

Feb. 14, 2013
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Photographers, reporters and other members of international media covered last night's vigil at Tumon. International media, primarily from Japan, are on Guam to cover the event following Tuesday night's rampage in front of The Plaza and Outrigger Resort Guam. Masako Watanabe/Pacific Daily News/mwatanabe@guampdn.com.

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Joseph Verga, right, Guam Memorial Hospital chief executive officer, speaks to the media yesterday about the work of GMH doctors and nurses who treated more than a dozen patients following Tuesday night's attack in Tumon. Jonathan Abella/For Pacific Daily News

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The attack in Guam's tourist district that killed two visitors from Japan and wounded several other people has drawn international attention to the island's tourism industry.

Japan Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, speaking at a press conference in Tokyo yesterday morning, said the Japanese government was rushing to learn details of the attack, and he urged tourists to use caution ahead of the spring break travel season.

"The Japanese consulate general's office is working hard to deal with the situation," Suga said at the press conference.

"There are many people who go abroad for vacations. They should exercise utmost caution to ensure their safety," Suga said. "As the government of Japan, we will do what we can to that end."

As news organizations across Asia reported the attack as one of their top stories yesterday, Gov. Eddie Calvo sent a message to try to reassure Japan that Guam is safe.

"My brothers and sisters in Japan, my name is Eddie Calvo, and I'm the governor of Guam, ... a place you've always known as a safe and inviting destination for decades," the governor said.

"This was an isolated incident, ... something that just doesn't happen in our community," the governor said. "We are shocked. ... We are grieving with the families, ... and we extend our deepest condolences to those hurt."

Within a few hours of the governor's statement, Guam Visitors Bureau board Chairman Mark Baldyga also tried to reassure tourists that Guam is safe.

Japan is Guam's tourism mainstay, accounting for more than 71 percent of the 1.3 million who visited the island last year, Guam Visitors Bureau statistics show.

As the governor issued the statement yesterday morning, directly addressing the people of Japan, international news organizations reported the attack as breaking news. Japan news organizations such as NHK, the Asahi Shimbun and TV Asahi reported the Guam attack as one of their top stories. BBC Asia, CNN and news organizations from Hawaii to Australia carried the story as well.

The alleged attacker, Chad De Soto, a 21-year-old Guam resident and member of the John F. Kennedy High School class of 2011, is accused, according to court papers and police, of stabbing people at SandCastle Guam, hitting people with a car, and stabbing more people outside the Outrigger Guam Resort.

Luxury boutiques line the area, called "Pleasure Island," where the attacks occurred.

News from Japan

Some of the Japanese tourists visiting Guam found out about the attack from friends and family in Japan who saw the news through Japan news organizations.

Tsugunori Uehara, an information technology professional who visits Guam once or twice a month for consulting work, was in another ABC Store in the same shopping complex at The Plaza about an hour after the Tuesday night attack. He and a colleague saw police car lights flashing from a distance, but were unaware of what had just happened.

Hours later, he woke up and got the news from friends and relatives in Japan.

"(Yesterday) morning, I started receiving text messages from friends and family back home and that's when I found out what happened. ... It was about 8 a.m., right after Japanese news stations broadcast breaking news," Uehara said, speaking in Japanese. "So I went outside and was just shocked. It's terrible what was done."

Vacationing college students Hiroki Ishizuka, 22, and Yuusa Ohmae, 22, both from Osaka, were among a group of nine college seniors who arrived in Guam Tuesday night.

They walked by the crime scene yesterday morning, whispering to each other, pointing at the scene and snapping photos on their phones. It's their first time on Guam, and it's their last trip before graduating.

Ishizuka and Ohmae also had been unaware of the attack until relatives in Japan contacted them.

"Our parents contacted us this morning wondering if we were OK -- that's how we found out what had happened," Ishizuka said. "So we came down (to see the scene) and were, like, 'Wow, that's where it happened.'"

Ohmae said they also saw the news on TV. "It's frightening," Ohmae said.

Safety assurance

The Guam Visitors Bureau board immediately issued a statement, through its chairman, saying "the safety of visitors to our island is our No. 1 priority."

"Despite the fact that this was an isolated incident, we have asked the Guam police to increase their patrols in the hotel district and they have agreed to do so," Mark Baldyga said.

"We were already in the process of installing an upgraded security camera system that will provide even further digital coverage throughout Tumon via a web-based camera system that enables not only the police, but all hotel security departments, to view the camera feeds throughout Tumon.

"The safety of our visitors and local community is a top priority and we will continue to provide one of the safest visitor destinations in the world," Baldyga said. "It is ... a very sad tragedy that this one isolated incident has caused so much damage to the families of the victims. As a father myself, I can only imagine their suffering."

Some of the tourists interviewed yesterday had mixed feelings about whether they would come back to Guam.

"(We chose Guam) because it's a well-known resort destination. It's not good that something like this happened, but it's not like it was terrorism or that tourists were targeted," Ishizuka said.

Terufumi Tsukada, 70, who's visiting from Japan with his wife, Kiko Tsukada, said a premonition made them change their mind about going to the ABC Store when Kiko Tsukada wanted to do so Tuesday night.

"I often have premonitions about death and last night, I just felt something was going to happen," Terufumi Tsukada said.

He said his wife wanted to go shopping at the ABC Store.

"We had just finished dinner at McDonald's and she wanted to go shopping, but I told her, don't go, it's dangerous," Terufumi Tsukada said. "We saw this morning what had happened."

Kiko Tsukada said she's frightened.

"I'm glad he stopped me last night. He saved me. I don't want to come here (to Guam) again ... for a while anyway," she said.